Σελίδες

ISLAM WATCH-6

European 'No-Go' Zones: Fact or Fiction?

Part 1: France

by Soeren Kern • January 20, 2015 at 5:00 am

A 120-page research paper entitled 'No-Go Zones in the French Republic: Myth or Reality?' documented dozens of French neighborhoods 'where police and gendarmerie cannot enforce the Republican order or even enter without risking confrontation, projectiles, or even fatal shootings.'

In October 2011, a 2,200-page report, 'Banlieue de la République' (Suburbs of the Republic) found that Seine-Saint-Denis and other Parisian suburbs are becoming 'separate Islamic societies' cut off from the French state and where Islamic Sharia law is rapidly displacing French civil law.

The report also showed how the problem is being exacerbated by radical Muslim preachers who are promoting the social marginalization of Muslim immigrants in order to create a parallel Muslim society in France that is ruled by Sharia law.

The television presenter asks: 'What if we went to the suburbs?' Obertone replies: 'I do not recommend this. Not even we French dare go there anymore. But nobody talks about this in public, of course. Nor do those who claim, 'long live multiculturalism,' and 'Paris is wonderful!' dare enter the suburbs.'

The jihadist attack on the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French magazine known for lampooning Islam, has cast a spotlight on so-called no-go zones in France and other European countries. No-go zones are Muslim-dominated neighborhoods that are largely off limits to non-Muslims due to a variety of factors, including the lawlessness and insecurity that pervades a great number of these areas. Host-country authorities have effectively lost control over many no-go zones and are often unable or unwilling to provide even basic public aid, such as police, fire fighting and ambulance services, out of fear of being attacked by Muslim youth.

Muslim enclaves in European cities are also breeding grounds for Islamic radicalism and pose a significant threat to Western security.

While Jews are slaughtered, the Left worries about Islamophobia | The Australian

Amid the anti-Semitism apparent in Europe, a soldier guards the main synagogue in Bordeaux in France yesterday. Source: AFP

The demonstration gathered nearly four million people, but seeing in it a mobilization against terrorism, jihad and anti-Semitism would be a mistake.

The Ambassador of Saudi Arabia attended, shortly after his nation had just finished flogging the young blogger Raif Badawi with the first 50 lashes of his 1000 lash sentence. Badawi is being flayed alive -- 'very severely,' the lashing order said. He has 950 lashes to go.

Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Palestinian unity government, which includes Hamas and supports jihadist terrorism as well as genocide, was at the forefront -- smiling. Israel's Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was originally not invited. He came anyhow. He was told not to speak. He spoke anyhow. As a sign of disapproval, French officials left before his speech.

Although six Jews were among the seventeen victims, the anti-Semitic dimension of the attacks was barely spoken about.

The words 'Islam' and 'jihadist' were not mentioned. President François Hollande said, against all evidence, 'Those who committed these acts have nothing to do with Islam.'

Few Muslims came. They stated their only concern: 'Avoid stigmatization of the Muslim community!'

Anyone who watches television and sees what is happening in many Muslim countries has to be doubting that Islam is peaceful.

Several polls show that more than 70% of the French think Islam is incompatible with democracy and Western civilization. Those polls predate the attacks.

The French demonstration of 'unity' on Sunday, January 11, may have attracted nearly four million marchers and shown a facade of unity, but behind this facade, rising tensions are approaching the breaking point.[1]

Government members immediately called for fighting 'terrorism' and for 'national unity.' Mainstream media called for defending 'free speech.' Signs saying 'I am Charlie' ['Je Suis Charlie'] began to appear the next day and quickly multiplied. TV channels showed the sign on their screens. Newspapers and magazines put it on their front page.

After the terrorist attack against the kosher supermarket, signs saying 'I am a Jew' appeared, too, but were much less numerous. Although six Jews were among the seventeen victims, the anti-Semitic dimension of the attacks was barely spoken about.

Radical Islam in Europe: No One to Blame But Us

by Vijeta Uniyal • January 17, 2015 at 5:00 am

Most of all, we failed to extend our hand of solidarity to those brave Muslim men and women who dared to defy the radical elements within their own communities.

The Western school systems have brought forth a generation that that, by taking the gifts of these freedoms for granted, has failed to learn how irregular in history they are, that the heavy price that was paid by generations gone by to secure them.

Instead of passing on this flame of enlightenment and freedom to the Muslim world, we have undermined it at home.

If we fail to stand up for our values, nobody else will.

Firefighters work at the offices of the Hamburger Morgenpost newspaper in Hamburg, Germany, which was attacked by arsonists on January 11. (Image source: Tagesschau video screenshot) More hearts of Western civilization have been targeted and hit. First, armed gunmen entered the Paris office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week and killed 12 people, to impose their understanding of Sharia on the French. Then, the German newspaper Hamburger Morgenpost, which had the courage to reprint the cartoons, was firebombed on January 10.

Most newspapers in Germany had apparently decided not to risk upsetting Muslim extremists by reprinting anything that might have have distressed them. The Berliner Zeitung, the Hamburger Morgenpost and Der Tagesspiegel were amongst the few exceptions.

Assaults such as these, in addition to a list of demands -- from banning Christmas decorations to putting people on trial, if not murdering them, for exercising their freedom of speech -- lead one to wonder what further demands might be rolling down the pike, how many, and at what point, if any, are they meant to stop?

While Europe suffers, Islamists face setbacks in Middle East The Times of Israel

As France grapples with terror, back in the region jihadist, Muslim Brotherhood, and Iranian camps are actually weakening, which may be a factor in the devastating export of extremism.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi speaks in front of the state-run TV ahead of a military funeral for troops killed in an assault in the Sinai Peninsula, as he stands with army commanders in Cairo, Egypt, October 25, 2014. (photo credit: AP/MENA, Mohammed Samaha)

HYDERABAD: A video has come out showing a Muslim cleric in India leading a funeral prayer, where he praises and endorses the murder of cartoonists and satirists of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

This is the second major incident of someone in India openly supporting the Charlie Hebdo killers... … cleric is Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin, who is a well known and respected cleric and Khateeb in the old city. …

“Our lives are of no meaning if someone, who has insulted the prophet, is still alive,” he is heard telling the gathering of local Muslims in the video.

The funeral prayer held in absentia, known as Ghaibana-Namaz-e-Janaza ... The Maulana is also heard condemning the Unity Rally that took place in Paris on Sunday.

… Maulana Naseeruddin justified the act of terror at Charlie Hebdo’s office as a deed sanctioned by Islamic traditions.

… that Prophet Mohammad himself had ordered executions of people who had mocked or insulted Islam and Allah.

Maulana Naseeruddin further claims that as per the Islamic traditions, those insulting the faith and the prophet shouldn’t be forgiven, but killed. He adds that since there is no global leadership of Muslims, it become the responsibility of every Muslim to make sure that such offenders don’t go unpunished.

“What they (the terrorists) did was completely jaayaz (legitimate) as per shariyat laws,” he claims. …

While some may say that this Maulana is a fringe voice and should be ignored, it should be noted that Maulana Mohammed Naseeruddin is not any random Muslim cleric.

Pegida: The New German Revolution by Peter Martino January 15, 2015 at 5:00 am

Pegida's worries about the Islamization of Germany concern the seeming intolerance and religious fanaticism that have grown hand-in-hand with the arrival of the Muslim populations unwilling to adapt to Western values.

The terror attacks in France Had 'nothing to do with Islam.' — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière.

By decrying Pegida's views as 'xenophobic,' narrow minded' and even 'inhuman,' Germany's ruling establishment shows how deeply out of touch it is with the worries of a large segment of the population.

Perhaps the people in the East just want to avoid the situation that the Western part of the country is in. Having gone through decades of Communist dictatorship, perhaps they are less inclined to trust that their political leaders have the people's best interests in mind with their policies.

Every Monday evening since last October, thousands of citizens have marched through the city of Dresden as well as other German cities to protest the Islamization of their country. They belong to an organization, established only three months ago, called Pegida, the German abbreviation for 'Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.'

Pegida is a democratic grassroots organization, without origins in the far-left, far-right or links to any political parties, domestic or foreign. The French Front National [FN] of Marine Le Pen even made it clear that it wants nothing to do with 'spontaneous initiatives' such as Pegida. According to the FN, 'something like Pegida cannot be a substitute for a party.'

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders of the Freedom Party [PVV] is more positive. He sees Pegida as a sign of the growing discontent of ordinary people with the political elite now governing them. 'A revolution is on its way,' he says. Ironically, Wilders's PVV, currently by far the largest party in the Dutch polls, is itself more of a spontaneous movement, driven by the energy and charisma of one single man with a mission to liberate his country from Islamic extremism, rather than an established and structured political party. That Pegida is a spontaneous and diffuse organization of citizens expressing their discontent, seems to be worrying the German political establishment. German Chancellor Angela Merkel knows how powerful these movements can become. In 1989, when thousands of people shouting, 'Wir sind das Volk' ['We are the people'] took to the streets in cities such as Dresden, the Communist regime in East Germany was toppled.

Apart from slogans such as: 'Against Religious Fanaticism,' and: 'For the Future of our Children,' the anti-Islamization protesters of Pegida are using exactly the same slogan -- 'Wir sind das Volk' --- of the anti-Communist demonstrators a quarter of a century ago, as they march against the open-door policies of the German government.

The use of the 1989 liberation slogan has infuriated Merkel, who reproaches Pegida for using it. In her New Year's speech, Merkel attacked the Pegida demonstrators. 'Their hearts are cold, full of prejudice and hatred,' she said, while defending her government's policies of welcoming asylum seekers and immigrants. She pointed out that Germany had taken in more than 200,000 asylum seekers in 2014, making it the country that is accepting the largest number of refugees in the world.

Merkel has been backed by church leaders, who are slamming Pegida and calling for solidarity with migrants. The Confederation of German Employers has been blaming Pegida for damaging Germany's international reputation. Meanwhile, so-called anti-fascist demonstrators, shouting 'Wir sind die Mauer. Das Volk muss weg!' ['We are the Wall. Down with the people!'], last week blocked a Pegida march in Berlin.

On January 10, fearing that the recent Islamic terror attacks in France might lead to even more public support for Pegida, Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz, a member of Chancellor Merkel's Christian-Democratic CDU Party, co-sponsored in her town a so-called 'Lovestorm' event. The aim was to conquer the 'xenophobia' of Pegida through 'open mindedness and humanity.' Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, another leading CDU politician, claimed that the terror attacks in France had 'nothing to do with Islam' and warned against 'political pyromaniacs' such as Pegida who suggest otherwise.

Pegida's worries about the Islamization of Germany concern the seeming intolerance and religious fanaticism that have grown hand in hand with the arrival of Muslim populations unwilling to adapt to Western values.

But by decrying Pegida's views as 'xenophobic,' 'narrow minded' and even 'inhuman,' Germany's ruling establishment shows how deeply out of touch it is with the worries of a large segment of the population.

A recent poll, dating from before the terror attacks in France, found that one in three Germans support the Pegida anti-Islamization marches. Further, a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation found that German attitudes toward Islam are hardening, with 61% saying in 2014 that Islam is 'not suited to the Western world' -- up from 52% in 2012. Also, up to 57% of the Germans see Islam as a threat, 40% feel that they are becoming foreigners in their own country because of the Muslim presence, and 24% want to ban Muslim immigration.

Looking at the numbers of demonstrators that join the Pegida demonstrations every Monday in various German cities, Pegida is clearly an overwhelmingly East German phenomenon. Indeed, in the provinces formerly belonging to the Communist German Democratic Republic [GDR], many thousands of people are drawn to the demonstrations, while in the West the numbers are far lower. Political analysts admit to being puzzled by this, given that the number of immigrants, including Muslims, is far lower in the East than in the West. Some blame the higher unemployment figures in the East; the 'backwardness,' the lack of 'civil society,' the lack of 'liberal open mindedness,' and that 'people in the East feel that they are losers.'

There might, however, be two other explanations that make more sense. Perhaps the people in the East just want to avoid the situation that the Western part of the country is in, as a result of the large Islamic presence. While the West might already be lost as a result of Islamization, the East is still capable of avoiding the West's fate. Moreover, having gone through decades of Communist dictatorship, perhaps the Easterners are less inclined to trust that their political leaders have the people's best interests in mind with their policies.

Perhaps they feel that, rather than trust that Frau Merkel knows what is best for the German people -- as she welcomes in record numbers these new Islamic immigrants -- the German people need to show her clearly that they think she is wrong.